June 12, 2023

Afternoon Update:

Marie: MSNBC & CNN are going all-in, O.J.-style, with the Trump indictment. CNN even ran O.J.-type slow-car-chase video as Trump's motorcade was going to Newark Airport. Really. They just need a countdown clock to the time Trump's arraignment is supposed to start. ~~~

     ~~~ Some good news maybe. Andrew Weissmann, speaking on MSNBC, said Judge Aileen Cannon likely will not be allowed to scrub testimony & evidence from Trump attorney Evan Corcoran. Weissmann described the piercing of the attorney-client privilege as "already adjudicated," and not something Cannon can overturn. If she does try, no doubt an Appeals Court would overrule her, Weissmann said. As far as the issue of her recusal, Weissmann noted that Cannon's most "troubling" remark in her rulings was that Trump should receive special deference because he was a former POTUS*. This, Weissmann notes, tosses the foundational principle of equal justice. As the New York Times noted in September 2022, Cannon wrote, "'As a function of plaintiff's former position as president of the United States, the stigma associated with the subject seizure is in a league of its own.' She also noted that, because of the search of Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump faced 'unquantifiable potential harm by way of improper disclosure of sensitive information to the public.'" Weissmann & Mary McCord discuss some of this in this podcast, beginning at about 26 min. in.

Elahi Izadi & Will Sommer of the Washington Post: "Fred Ryan, the publisher and chief executive of The Washington Post for most of the decade since it was bought by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, will leave the company in August, he announced Monday. Ryan, 68, will lead the newly formed nonpartisan Center on Public Civility at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. Patty Stonesifer, the founding chief executive of the Gates Foundation and more recently the director of the Amazon board, was named the interim CEO of The Post on Monday, starting immediately, and is leading the search for Ryan's replacement." MB: Don't know anything about Stonesifer, but good riddance to Ryan. The Reagan Foundation is the ideal fit for him.

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Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "In the 49-page federal indictment accusing [Donald Trump] of retaining classified documents after leaving the White House and scheming to block government efforts to retrieve them, some of the most potentially damning evidence came from notes made by one of those lawyers, M. Evan Corcoran. Mr. Corcoran's notes, first recorded into an iPhone and then transcribed on paper, essentially gave prosecutors a road map to building their case. Mr. Trump, according to the indictment, pressured Mr. Corcoran to thwart investigators from reclaiming reams of classified material and even suggested to him that it might be better to lie to investigators and withhold the documents altogether.... Mr. Corcoran, who was recommended for the team by Mr. Trump's legal adviser Boris Epshteyn, could potentially be a key witness if the case goes to trial." ~~~

~~~ Josh Dawsey & Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "The 37-count federal indictment of ... Donald Trump ... is based on information from a coterie of close aides, household staffers and lawyers hired to serve Trump in his post-presidency.... A secretary identified in the indictment as 'Trump Employee 2' -- told prosecutors that Trump himself had been packing and looking through boxes, contrary to assertions from his own lawyers. A young political aide, referred to as 'the PAC representative' in the indictment, told prosecutors that Trump showed him a classified map about a military operation in a foreign country and told him to stand back because it was a secret document. At a recent CNN town hall, Trump said he did not remember doing such a thing. Key parts of the indictment are based on one of his lawyer's detailed notes about Trump's wishing to obstruct justice by not responding to a subpoena -- contradicting the 45th president's claims that he was always cooperative with the Justice Department and the National Archives and Records Administration.... Interviews [of dozens of staffers] gave [special counsel Jack] Smith a close-up look at how Trump had structured his unorthodox post-presidential life -- and made Trump and his advisers deeply angry and uncomfortable...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Whataboutism for Dummies. Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "... the Trump indictment itself helps explain the difference between his case and other high-profile probes, like those of Hillary Clinton, President Biden and former vice president Mike Pence -- not for what it charges, but for what it doesn't.... Notably..., the indictment does not charge Trump with the illegal retention of any of the 197 [classified] documents he returned to the archives.... While [Clinton's] email chains discussed classified topics, they were not classified documents in the traditional sense, with extensive markings and acronyms.... It has long been standard practice in the federal government for officials to review their own correspondence in response to Freedom of Information Act requests and decide which of their emails are personal and therefore not turned over. In Clinton's case, her lawyers did that for her.... Robert Kelner, a veteran D.C. attorney[, said,]. 'The key difference is that in the Hillary Clinton case, as we learned from the Department of Justice inspector general report, there was no evidence that Hillary Clinton sought to obstruct justice.'... The indictment offers anecdote after alleged anecdote charging that the former president sought to hide and keep some of the classified papers....

Biden's lawyers say they have cooperated at every step of the investigation and readily returned all classified materials found in the office and the Wilmington house.... The Pence case also points to the key distinction in the national security probes involving presidents, former top officials or presidential candidates -- that it is not so much what is taken, but what is kept." A similar AP analysis is here and is worth reading. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Daniel Dale of CNN: "In the weeks before Donald Trump was indicted over his alleged mishandling of classified defense documents..., the former president kept arguing that it would be unfair to prosecute him given that President Joe Biden took '1,850 boxes' of documents to the University of Delaware.... But Trump's vague insinuations that there is something improper about the existence of the Biden collection at the University of Delaware are baseless. The collection of donated documents is from Biden's 36-year tenure as a US senator for Delaware. Unlike presidents, who are subject to the Presidential Records Act, senators own their offices' documents and can do whatever they want with them.... Trump has also made false specific claims about the boxes of Biden's Senate documents. It is not true that 'nobody even knows where they are.'... It is also not true that Biden 'has been totally uncooperative' and 'won't show the documents under any circumstances.' Biden consented to two FBI searches at the university -- searches that did not initially appear to turn up any documents with classified markings, a source ... [said] in February, though they were still being analyzed at the time." Emphasis added. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

David Rohde, et al., of NBC News: "Aileen Cannon..., a former prosecutor [who will oversee the Trump federal case], is the same Trump appointee who repeatedly ruled in his favor in a related case. She will now oversee a trial that experts believe could influence the American public's trust in the fairness of the court system for years to come. Cannon will guide how quickly the case goes to trial, oversee the selection of jurors and determine what evidence can be presented to the jury.... Trump's lawyers ... will likely ask Cannon to block prosecutors from presenting evidence from [Trump lawyer Evan] Corcoran to the trial jury. If Cannon agrees that the jury should not hear all of the Corcoran evidence, the Justice Department's case won't be over, but it will be critically hobbled.... Brandon Van Grack, a former Justice Department national security prosecutor and a lead prosecutor in the Mueller investigation, noted that the use of classified documents involves a separate discovery and litigation process, under the Classified Information Processing Act, or CIPA.... 'This process takes time and will be unfamiliar to the judge.'"

Shayna Jacobs, et al., of the Washington Post: "Federal and local authorities on Sunday amped up security preparations ahead of Donald Trump's first appearance in federal court on criminal charges here, monitoring online threats and potential gatherings of far-right extremists while marshaling more police officers to be on duty. Escalating violent rhetoric in online forums, coupled with defiant statements from the former president and his political allies, have put law enforcement officials on alert for potential disruptions ahead of Trump's court appearance.... Trump, during a radio interview with longtime adviser Roger Stone on Sunday afternoon, repeated his call for protests.... Authorities were monitoring plans for pro-Trump rallies in Miami, including one outside the federal courthouse on Tuesday purportedly organized by a local chapter of the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group...." Failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who on Saturday told Georgia Republicans, "We're at war, people -- we're at war," plans to lead a rally for Trump Monday night at a Palm Beach hotel.

Stephanie Mencimer of Mother Jones: "Former attorney general Bill Barr said Sunday morning that he believed that Donald Trump is in real trouble with the latest indictment against him for mishandling classified documents. 'I was shocked by the degree of sensitivity of these documents and how many there were, frankly,' Barr told Fox News' Shannon Bream. 'If even half of it is true, he's toast. It is a very detailed indictment and it's very, very damning.' Barr noted that despite Trump's insistence that the prosecution is a politically motivated witch hunt, 'I think the counts under the Espionage Act ... are solid counts.'" ~~~

~~~ Lauren Sforza of the Hill: "Former Attorney General Bill Barr called arguments being made by Republicans attempting to compare former President Trump's handling of classified documents to previous presidents 'big lies.'... 'So, there are two big lies, I think, that are out there right now,' Barr said [on 'Fox News Sunday.'] 'One is all these other presidents took all these documents. Those were situations where the arranged with the archives to set up special space under the management, control, and security provided by the archivists to temporarily put documents until the libraries were ready. These were not people just putting them in their basement, OK.' The second lie, according to Barr, is the notion that a president has 'complete authority' to declare any document 'personal.'... Some of the documents ... clearly could not be marked as personal. The summary includes some of the nation's most sensitive information." At the end of Sunday's Comments, Nisky Guy writes an addendum to Barr's remarks, which Charming Billy should not have left unsaid. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Kelly Garrity of CNN: "The president of the United States, 'can classify and he can control access to national security information however he wants,' Rep. Jim Jordan (Arrr-Ohio) said Sunday in defense of ... Donald Trump.&" MB: I watched a portion of Jordan's supposed defense of Trump, and if his is the best defense Trump has, Judge Aileen is going to have her hands full trying to get Trump off. Dana Bash was having none of Jordan's rapid-fire bull, and he quickly landed on the "But Hillary" retort. That won't work in court. Except Aileen.

Presidential Race 2024. David Firestone of the New York Times: In "many ways, [Ron] DeSantis has tried make a mockery of [campaign finance] laws. If you want a preview of how Mr. DeSantis views the government's limits on power and plutocracy -- as feeble as they are already -- there's no better place to look than his campaign.... Mr. DeSantis is hardly the only politician in the race who has demonstrated contempt for basic ethics and campaign finance laws. Donald Trump has funneled money from his leadership PAC to his super PAC, a different kind of abuse that has also drawn a complaint before the F.E.C. But Mr. DeSantis's actions are pathbreaking in an unusually wanton and disdainful way." ~~~

~~~ Ezra Klein of the New York Times: "As I read through [Ron DeSantis's book], I started marking down every time he told a story about using the power of his office to punish or sideline a perceived enemy or obstacle.... Then there's what DeSantis wants to do, but hasn't yet done.... DeSantis is trying to show, in vignette after vignette, that he has both the will and the discipline to do what Trump did not.... The Trump that emerges in DeSantis's anecdotes is ... a faintly comic figure ... overmatched by the details and minutiae of government.... DeSantis is portraying himself as the figure liberals have long feared: a Donald Trump who plans, a Donald Trump who follows through.... A lot can happen from here, and DeSantis has proved himself nothing if not a capable opportunist."

Beyond the Beltway

Pennsylvania. Justin George & Mary Molloy of the Washington Post: "An overpass on Interstate 95 that collapsed in North Philadelphia on Sunday will take months to replace, officials said, snarling a bustling East Coast corridor during the summer travel season and severing a main commercial artery for the city. Standing before the wreckage of what he called 'remarkable devastation, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) and other officials warned motorists to expect detours and embrace public transit for an unknown period as the highway is rebuilt." Reuters has a story here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Pennsylvania can do better. When a hurricane washed out thousands of feet of a viaduct on I-10 in North Florida, some government entity made it passable within 10 days. I don't know if then-Florida-Gov. Jeb Bush or FEMA or the U.S. Transportation Department or who-all was responsible for the temporary repairs, but it was a near-miraculous response to a crisis.

Way Beyond

India. Sameer Yasir, et al., of the New York Times: "In India's worst railway disaster in decades, nearly all of the 288 dead were in three crowded cars where passengers stand for long stretches. It was these packed general coaches, right behind the engine of the Coromandel Express, that became a scene of unthinkable carnage just after sunset on June 2 when the train smashed into a parked freight train at 80 miles per hour in eastern India. Almost all of the 288 dead were in those three cars at the front of the train -- a fact, confirmed by officials, that has gone almost unnoticed in India. Unlike the 1,200 people in reserved seats, those in the general coaches were officially nameless; the rail service had no record of their identities.... The railway calamity has once again highlighted how unevenly the burden of India's inadequate infrastructure falls on the poor."

Italy. Jason Horowitz & Rachel Donadio of the New York Times: "Silvio Berlusconi, the brash media mogul who revolutionized Italian television with privately owned channels that he used to become the country's most polarizing and prosecuted prime minister over multiple stints in office and an often scandalous quarter-century of political and cultural influence, died on Monday at San Raffaele hospital in Milan. He was 86." The Guardian's obituary of Berlusconi is here.

Scotland. Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland's former first minister and once one of Britain's most prominent politicians, was arrested on Sunday by police officers investigating the finances of the Scottish National Party, which dominates the country's politics and which she led until her unexpected resignation in February. The news deepens the crisis engulfing the Scottish National Party, or S.N.P., delivering a new blow to its campaign for Scottish independence after the arrests of Ms. Sturgeon's husband, Peter Murrell, the party's former chief executive, and then of Colin Beattie, its former treasurer, in April. Both men were released after questioning and without being charged with any offense. In a statement issued late Sunday afternoon, Police Scotland said that Ms. Sturgeon had also 'been released without charge pending further investigation' and, swiftly after that announcement, the former first minister proclaimed her innocence." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The Guardian's story is here.

Ukraine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Monday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Monday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefing for Monday is here: "Ukraine has liberated the villages of Makarivka, Blahodatne in the Donetsk region, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said on Telegram, marking what may be the country's first gains in its long-anticipated counteroffensive.... The territorial gain by Ukraine was confirmed by the Institute for the Study of War in an analysis noting that this was not yet a 'breakthrough.'... Russian forces fired on boats evacuating civilians in the flooded Kherson region, killing three people and injuring 10, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram. Three boats carrying 21 people, most of them elderly, were leaving the Russian-occupied area across the Dnieper River at the time of the attack, he added.... One-third of nearly 63,000 bomb shelters surveyed by Ukrainian authorities are either shut down or unusable, the country's emergency services department said on Facebook." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Killing elderly civilians trying to flee a flood -- which the Russians themselves caused -- in open boats? That's a war crime.

Travis Pennington, et al., of CNN: "The US State Department has confirmed the arrest of American citizen Travis Leake in Russia and said US embassy officials attended his arraignment Saturday. Moscow's courts of general jurisdiction earlier released a statement on the social media app Telegram saying a US citizen had been detained on drugs charges. Leake was detained on Saturday where 'the Khamovniki District Court of Moscow took a preventive measure against an American citizen,' it said.... 'The former paratrooper and musician is accused of engaging in the narcotics business through attracting young people,' the statement said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Lede

AP: "The driver of a tractor-trailer hauling gasoline lost control on an off-ramp and flipped the tanker truck on its side in a wreck that set it afire and destroyed a section of the East Coast's main north-south highway, Pennsylvania's top transportation official said Monday. In the first official accounting of a wreck that threw hundreds of thousands of morning commutes into chaos and disrupted untold numbers of businesses, state Transportation Secretary Mike Carroll said the driver was northbound 'trying to navigate the curve, lost control of the vehicle, landed on its side and ruptured the tank.'... Pennsylvania State Police said a body recovered from the wreckage has been turned over to the Philadelphia medical examiner and coroner. Authorities are in the process of identifying the remains, police said."

June 11, 2023

Afternoon Update:

Lauren Sforza of the Hill: "Former Attorney General Bill Barr called arguments being made by Republicans attempting to compare former President Trump's handling of classified documents to previous presidents 'big lies.'... 'So, there are two big lies, I think, that are out there right now,' Barr said [on 'Fox News Sunday.'] 'One is all these other presidents took all these documents. Those were situations where they arranged with the archives to set up special space under the management, control, and security provided by the archivists to temporarily put documents until the libraries were ready. These were not people just putting them in their basement, OK.' The second lie, according to Barr, is the notion that a president has 'complete authority' to declare any document 'personal.'... Some of the documents ... clearly could not be marked as personal. The summary includes some of the nation's most sensitive information." At the end of Sunday's Comments, Nisky Guy writes an appropriate addendum to Barr's remarks, which Charming Billy should not have left unsaid.

Scotland. Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland's former first minister and once one of Britain's most prominent politicians, was arrested on Sunday by police officers investigating the finances of the Scottish National Party, which dominates the country's politics and which she led until her unexpected resignation in February. The news deepens the crisis engulfing the Scottish National Party, or S.N.P., delivering a new blow to its campaign for Scottish independence after the arrests of Ms. Sturgeon's husband, Peter Murrell, the party's former chief executive, and then of Colin Beattie, its former treasurer, in April. Both men were released after questioning and without being charged with any offense. In a statement issued late Sunday afternoon, Police Scotland said that Ms. Sturgeon had also 'been released without charge pending further investigation' and, swiftly after that announcement, the former first minister proclaimed her innocence."

Russia. Travis Pennington, et al., of CNN: "The US State Department has confirmed the arrest of American citizen Travis Leake in Russia and said US embassy officials attended his arraignment Saturday. Moscow's courts of general jurisdiction earlier released a statement on the social media app Telegram saying a US citizen had been detained on drugs charges. Leake was detained on Saturday where 'the Khamovniki District Court of Moscow took a preventive measure against an American citizen,' it said.... 'The former paratrooper and musician is accused of engaging in the narcotics business through attracting young people,' the statement said."

Josh Dawsey & Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "The 37-count federal indictment of ... Donald Trump ... is based on information from a coterie of close aides, household staffers and lawyers hired to serve Trump in his post-presidency.... A secretary -- identified in the indictment as 'Trump Employee 2' -- told prosecutors that Trump himself had been packing and looking through boxes, contrary to assertions from his own lawyers. A young political aide, referred to as 'the PAC representative' in the indictment, told prosecutors that Trump showed him a classified map about a military operation in a foreign country and told him to stand back because it was a secret document. At a recent CNN town hall, Trump said he did not remember doing such a thing. Key parts of the indictment are based on one of his lawyer's detailed notes about Trump's wishing to obstruct justice by not responding to a subpoena -- contradicting the 45th president's claims that he was always cooperative with the Justice Department and the National Archives and Records Administration.... Interviews [of dozens of staffers] gave [special counsel Jack] Smith a close-up look at how Trump had structured his unorthodox post-presidential life -- and made Trump and his advisers deeply angry and uncomfortable...."

Whataboutism for Dummies. Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "... the Trump indictment itself helps explain the difference between his case and other high-profile probes, like those of Hillary Clinton, President Biden and former vice president Mike Pence -- not for what it charges, but for what it doesn't.... Notably..., the indictment does not charge Trump with the illegal retention of any of the 197 [classified] documents he returned to the archives.... While [Clinton's] email chains discussed classified topics, they were not classified documents in the traditional sense, with extensive markings and acronyms.... It has long been standard practice in the federal government for officials to review their own correspondence in response to Freedom of Information Act requests and decide which of their emails are personal and therefore not turned over. In Clinton's case, her lawyers did that for her.... Robert Kelner, a veteran D.C. attorney[, said,]. 'The key difference is that in the Hillary Clinton case, as we learned from the Department of Justice inspector general report, there was no evidence that Hillary Clinton sought to obstruct justice.'... The indictment offers anecdote after alleged anecdote charging that the former president sought to hide and keep some of the classified papers....

Biden's lawyers say they have cooperated at every step of the investigation and readily returned all classified materials found in the office and the Wilmington house.... The Pence case also points to the key distinction in the national security probes involving presidents, former top officials or presidential candidates -- that it is not so much what is taken, but what is kept." A similar AP analysis is here and is worth reading. ~~~

~~~ Daniel Dale of CNN: "In the weeks before Donald Trump was indicted over his alleged mishandling of classified defense documents..., the former president kept arguing that it would be unfair to prosecute him given that President Joe Biden took '1,850 boxes' of documents to the University of Delaware.... But Trump's vague insinuations that there is something improper about the existence of the Biden collection at the University of Delaware are baseless. The collection of donated documents is from Biden's 36-year tenure as a US senator for Delaware. Unlike presidents, who are subject to the Presidential Records Act, senators own their offices' documents and can do whatever they want with them.... Trump has also made false specific claims about the boxes of Biden's Senate documents. It is not true that 'nobody even knows where they are.'... It is also not true that Biden 'has been totally uncooperative' and 'won't show the documents under any circumstances.' Biden consented to two FBI searches at the university -- searches that did not initially appear to turn up any documents with classified markings, a source ... [said] in February, though they were still being analyzed at the time." Emphasis added.

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Jonathan Swan, et al., of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump on Saturday cast both his indictments by prosecutors and his bid for the White House as part of a 'final battle' with 'corrupt' forces that he maintained are destroying the country.... 'Either the Communists win and destroy America, or we destroy the Communists,' the former president said in [Columbus,] Georgia, seeming to refer to Democrats. He made similar remarks about the 'Deep State,' using the pejorative term he uses for U.S. intelligence agencies and more broadly for any federal government bureaucrat he perceives as a political opponent.... And he attacked by name Fani Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, Ga., who is weighing criminal charges against Mr. Trump, calling her 'a lunatic Marxist.'... Mr. Trump's speech at the Georgia state G.O.P. convention [-- held at a building that was once an ironworks that made mortars, guns and cannons for the Confederate Army --] and another later in the evening at the state party convention in North Carolina were planned before he was indicted on Thursday for his role in mishandling classified documents....

"Mr. Trump, who was already said to be angry on Thursday night in the first hours after he was told of the indictment, was enraged when the charges were unsealed and shared with him on Friday, according to a person who spoke with him.... The indictment was filled with information from people who work with him, and Mr. Trump had already been suspicious of several aides who might have revealed certain details to the special counsel...." An NBC News story is here. A related CBS News story is here.

Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Donald Trump vowed Saturday to continue running for president even if he were to be convicted as part of the 37-count federal felony indictment that was issued against him this week.... Trump is not legally prohibited from running for president from prison or as a convicted felon.... Trump predicted he would not be convicted and said he did not anticipate taking a plea deal, though he left open the possibility of doing so 'where they pay me some damages.'" MB: Ha! Good luck with that.

** Bad News. Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The criminal case against ... Donald J. Trump over his hoarding of classified documents was randomly assigned to Judge Aileen M. Cannon, a court official for the Southern District of Florida said on Saturday. The chief clerk of the federal court system there, Angela E. Noble, also confirmed that Judge Cannon would continue to oversee the case unless she recused herself. The news of Judge Cannon's assignment raised eyebrows because of her role in an earlier lawsuit filed by Mr. Trump challenging the F.B.I.'s search of his Florida club and estate, Mar-a-Lago. In issuing a series of rulings favorable to him, Judge Cannon, a Trump appointee, effectively disrupted the investigation until a conservative appeals court ruled she never had legitimate legal authority to intervene." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Since Aileen will be staying on the case, let's pretend -- for argument's sake -- that a jury convicts him on all counts. Then it would be up to Aileen to sentence him: What? A $500 fine? Or probation?

... these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand. -- Deepthroat

Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Senate Republican leaders, including Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), are staying quiet about former President Trump's indictment on 37 criminal charges, letting him twist in the wind and breaking with House Republican leaders who have rushed to Trump's defense. McConnell, who is careful not to comment on Trump or even repeat his name in public, has said to his GOP colleagues that he wants his party to turn the page on the former president, whom he sees as a flawed general election candidate and a drag on Senate Republican candidates. The Senate GOP leader's top deputies -- Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) -- have also indicated they don't want Trump to win the party's 2024 presidential nomination. They along with McConnell are letting Trump's legal troubles play out without coming to the former president's defense, in contrast to Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), who both issued statements Thursday criticizing the Justice Department before the indictment was unsealed to the public."

Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Chris Christie, the former Republican governor of New Jersey who is now running for president, called the facts in the indictment against his former ally Donald J. Trump 'devastating,' and said that the small group of Republicans now critical of the former president's conduct would grow. Mr. Christie, appearing on CNN Friday evening, refuted point-by-point the claim by Mr. Trump and many of his fellow Republicans that the indictment represented selective, partisan prosecution that would unnecessarily divide the country. The indictment would divide the nation, he said, but Mr. Trump had brought that on himself with poor conduct that 'was completely self-inflicted.'... Mr. Christie said a man of Mr. Trump's stature and ambitions should be held to a higher standard."

Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: "By laying out Donald Trump's own admissions and incriminating eyewitness accounts from his employees, the indictment unsealed on Friday provided compelling evidence that could be exceedingly difficult for the former president to overcome and avoid a conviction.... The sheer strength and volume of evidence presented in the indictment about Trump's knowledge and intent leaves few defenses at his disposal.... For violations of the Espionage Act, Trump was charged under section 793e of title 18 of the criminal code, which references the retention of 'national defense information' -- defined as materials that could damage the national security of the United States. The documents Trump retained appeared to exceed that threshold. In multiple instances in the indictment, some of the documents that Trump is said to have retained were so sensitive that prosecutors were forced to redact even the classification markings that described the secret programs.... The indictment laid out two instances showing Trump knew he was in unauthorized possession of national defense information months after he left the White House, as well as an extended account showing Trump knew he was obligated to return the material but took steps to illegally retain them.... Prosecutors also presented detailed evidence that Trump moved to obstruct the criminal investigation by concealing classified documents from an attorney identified as his then-lawyer Evan Corcoran after the justice department issued a subpoena last May demanding their return."

Shane Harris of the Washington Post: "In some ways, the historic moment where Trump finds himself now was predictable, say former officials who worked for him and experts that observed his behavior. As president, Trump chafed against procedures designed to protect secrets that he saw as restraints on his authority, enforced by an intelligence bureaucracy that he held in deep suspicion.... Several former aides said that Trump tried to intimidate anyone who attempted to retrieve secret documents after a meeting or keep them out of his hands.... The 37 counts against Trump ... describe a man who seemed not to recognize or care about the bright legal line that separates the presidency from life after it.... 'In his own mind, Trump has never left the presidency,' said Timothy Naftali, a presidential historian and national security expert who ran the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library.... '... It's a threat to the republic to have former presidents who believe their power is a lifetime privilege.'"

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times has some thoughts about the federal indictment of Donald Trump: "The indictment -- charging Trump with violating the Espionage Act and other laws -- offered devastating photos of America's secrets stacked up like something on 'Hoarders,' spilling out under the dry cleaning, a guitar case and other items.... During the 2016 campaign, Trump was always boasting about his devotion to protecting classified information, to mock Hillary. The prosecutors thoughtfully included some of his old comments, like this one: 'In my administration I';m going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. No one will be above the law.'... What an utter phony." (Also linked yesterday.)

Scott Lemieux of LG&$: Reality "Winner spent five years in jail for taking one document for a legitimate whistleblowing purpose. [She leaked a top-secret report on Russian hacking.] The idea that an ordinary person wouldn't be prosecuted for what Trump did is an intelligence-insulting lie even by the standards of Trump boot polishers.... Trump had the opportunity to avoid prosecution that an ordinary citizen like Winner would never have been afforded. He chose not to take them because he believes he is entirely above the law, and his fascist supporters agree." Winner pleaded guilty & was sentenced during the Trump administration*.

Sideshow. Rania Aniftos of Billboard: "'In August or September 2021, at The Bedminster Club, Trump showed a representative of his political action committee who did not possess a security clearance a classified map related to a military operation,' the indictment reads, as Twitter users began speculating and connecting the statement to a 2022 interview Kid Rock had with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson. 'We're looking at maps and s--, and I'm like, "Am I supposed to be in on this s--?"' Kid Rock -- a longtime and outspoken supporter of Trump -- told the Fox News anchor, who broke out into laughter." ~~~

     ~~~ digby: "But the [Kid Rock] event happened in 2017 so it was when Trump was president and has nothing to do with this indictment. He does show just how cavalier [Trump] always was with government secrets." MB: Kid Rock is probably as dumb as a rock, but I am struck that he is more intelligent than Trump: Trump has no compunction about showing some dude national security maps, but even the dude realizes he is not "supposed to be in on this shit."

Michael Schmidt, et al., of the New York Times: "The federal indictment of ... Donald J. Trump has unleashed a wave of calls by his supporters for violence and an uprising to defend him, disturbing observers and raising concerns of a dangerous atmosphere ahead of his court appearance in Miami on Tuesday. In social media posts and public remarks, close allies of Mr. Trump -- including a member of Congress -- have portrayed the indictment as an act of war, called for retribution and highlighted the fact that much of his base carries weapons. The allies have painted Mr. Trump as a victim of a weaponized Justice Department controlled by President Biden, his potential opponent in the 2024 election. The calls to action and threats have been amplified on right-wing media sites and have been met by supportive responses from social media users and cheers from crowds, who have become conditioned over several years by Mr. Trump and his allies to see any efforts to hold him accountable as assaults against him. Experts on political violence warn that attacks against people or institutions become more likely when elected officials or prominent media figures are able to issue threats or calls for violence with impunity....

"In Georgia, at the Republican state convention, Kari Lake, who refused to concede the Arizona election for governor...., [said,] 'I have a message tonight for Merrick Garland and Jack Smith and Joe Biden -- and the guys back there in the fake news media, you should listen up as well, this one is for you... If you want to get to President Trump, you are going to have go through me, and you are going to have to go through 75 million Americans just like me. And I'm going to tell you, most of us are card-carrying members of the N.R.A.... That's not a threat, that's a public service announcement.'" Read on.

Zack Beauchamp of Vox: "The Russia investigation set a pattern that would endure for the entire Trump presidency. Again and again, when faced with credible allegations of wrongdoing, Republicans indulged Trump's wildest fantasies out of either fear or genuine belief. [This worldview], once the province of cranks, evolved into the official narrative of the Republican Party -- an evolution cemented when Trump attempted to overthrow the 2020 election and the party elite permitted him to do so. In the Biden years, with Republicans out of power, the narrative of an entire government arranged against them only became more credible in the eyes of the base.... The result is a party that has, in the past several years, grown increasingly radicalized against the core institutions of America. They believe that everything in America is turning against them: not just the traditional enemies like the media and Hollywood, but also the military, big business, and even the US Olympic team.... Democracy depends on both sides respecting the rules of the game. But one side has decided, without any real evidence, that the rules are rigged against them -- and have demonstrated a willingness to disregard them...."

Tess Bridgeman & Brianna Rosen of Just Security: "Because of the remarkably sensitive nature of the documents the former president retained, and the shockingly insecure locations where they were held and transported..., there are ... potentially grave implications for U.S. national security. It is those national security implications, as evidenced in particular by the 31 counts lodged under the Espionage Act (18 U.S.C. § 793(e)), which we briefly lay out here.... Compromising ... intelligence streams could lead to an irreplaceable loss of technical or human access that took years and significant resources to develop. And that also entails a corresponding loss of insight into sensitive programs, leadership dynamics, and intent on the part of foreign governments (including adversarial ones) and their leaders.... The security breach [also] is significant because of its potentially damaging impact on intelligence liaison relationships and information sharing with other countries.... There is nothing in the indictment or otherwise indicating that the U.S. government is now sure it has recovered all of the classified information."

Beyond the Beltway

North Carolina. Hannah Schoenbaum of the AP: "Republican delegates in North Carolina voted Saturday at their annual convention to censure Thom Tillis, the state's senior U.S. senator, for backing LGBTQ+ rights, immigration and gun violence policies.... A two-thirds majority of the state party's 1,801 voting delegates was needed for the resolution to pass...." MB: Oh, they're still Tar Heels.

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al. The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine is here: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says his military commanders are in a 'positive mood' as a long-anticipated counteroffensive gets underway. Official details on the counteroffensive are scant.... Analysts said Ukraine appears to be attacking on several fronts, including Velyka Novosilka in the Donetsk region and Orikhiv in the Zaporizhzhia region.... French President Emmanuel Macron has called on his Iranian counterpart, Ebrahim Raisi, to put an end to drone deliveries that are supporting Russia's war in Ukraine. Macron made the plea in a 90-minute phone call Saturday, Reuters reported.... The last reactor still operating at Europe's largest nuclear plant in Ukraine has been put into a 'cold shutdown' as a precaution after the collapse last week of the Kakhovka dam, Ukrainian energy officials said.... Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced about $375 million in new military aid during a surprise visit on Saturday to the Ukrainian capital, along with about $7.5 million to help with the humanitarian response to the collapse of the Kakhovka dam."~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Sunday are here. The Guardian's live updates for Sunday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here.

News Ledes

Texas. New York Times: "Tens of thousands of fish washed ashore along the gulf coast of Texas starting on Friday after being starved of oxygen in warm water, officials said. Park officials for Brazoria County said that a cleanup effort was underway but thousands more fish were expected to wash ashore.... The cause was a 'perfect storm' of bad conditions, said Bryan Frazier, the director of the Brazoria County Parks Department. Warm water holds much less oxygen than cold water, he said, and calm seas and cloudy skies in the area had stymied the ways oxygen is usually infused into ocean water. Waves add oxygen to water, and cloudy skies reduce the ability of microscopic organisms to produce oxygen through photosynthesis."

Colombia. New York Times: "Four Colombian children who survived in the Colombian jungle for 40 days after their plane crashed were eager to play and asked for books to read, officials said on Saturday, one day after the group was rescued. The siblings, aged 1 to 13, were recuperating at a military hospital in Bogotá, the capital, and were said to be in good health and spirits on Saturday, when they were visited by President Gustavo Petro and other officials.... Carlos Rincón, the military doctor who evaluated the children, said they had survived with only mild cuts and scrapes. In photos released by the government on Friday, the children appeared gaunt and the doctor said they were not yet receiving solid food."

Pennsylvania. AP: "An elevated section of Interstate 95 collapsed early Sunday in Philadelphia after a vehicle caught fire, closing the main north-south highway on the East Coast and threatening to upend travel in parts of the densely populated Northeast, authorities said. Transportation officials warned of extensive delays and street closures and urged drivers to avoid the area in the northeast corner of the city. Early reports indicated that the vehicle may have been a tanker truck, but officials could not immediately confirm that. The fire was reported to be under control. Video from the scene showed a massive concrete slab had fallen from I-95 onto the road below. There were no reports of injuries."

June 10, 2023

Late Morning/Evening Update:

** Bad News. Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The criminal case against ... Donald J. Trump over his hoarding of classified documents was randomly assigned to Judge Aileen M. Cannon, a court official for the Southern District of Florida said on Saturday. The chief clerk of the federal court system there, Angela E. Noble, also confirmed that Judge Cannon would continue to oversee the case unless she recused herself. The news of Judge Cannon's assignment raised eyebrows because of her role in an earlier lawsuit filed by Mr. Trump challenging the F.B.I.'s search of his Florida club and estate, Mar-a-Lago. In issuing a series of rulings favorable to him, Judge Cannon, a Trump appointee, effectively disrupted the investigation until a conservative appeals court ruled she never had legitimate legal authority to intervene."

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times has some thoughts about the federal indictment of Donald Trump: "The indictment -- charging Trump with violating the Espionage Act and other laws -- offered devastating photos of America's secrets stacked up like something on 'Hoarders,' spilling out under the dry cleaning, a guitar case and other items.... During the 2016 campaign, Trump was always boasting about his devotion to protecting classified information, to mock Hillary. The prosecutors thoughtfully included some of his old comments, like this one: 'In my administration I'm going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. No one will be above the law.'... What an utter phony."

~~~~~~~~~~

Special Counsel Jack Smith made a statement Friday afternoon:

** The indictments of Donald Trump and Walt Nauta have been unsealed. ~~~

     ~~~ ** Marie: You can read the indictment via PBS News (pdf). (If the link doesn't work [and I think it does], there's another PBS link here.) The New York Times has an annotated version here. Wow, Wow and Wow! BTW, there are not seven counts against Trump; there are thirty-seven counts against him. Smith recommended you read the indictment. So do I. It's 49 pages long, but the pages have a lot of white space. ~~~

     ~~~ The indictment includes a number of photos of piles of boxes of documents Trump & Nauta had stashed in various places around Mar-a-Lago, including the ballroom, where thousands of guests and foreign spies could access them. Trump's staff, including Nuata, took the pictures. The photos are difficult to see in the indictment itself, but NBC5-Dallas has reproduced color versions of the photos here. MB: If you look closely at the photo of the boxes stored in a bathroom, you can see in the upper-righthand corner of the picture that boxes are stacked in the shower up to the ceiling. This bathroom is described as being "in the Lake Room." It is unclear whether or not the bathroom was unlocked & accessible to random visitors to the Lake Room. In any event, a exterior window to the room provides a means of access. I guess if I were a foreign spy, I'd waltz in, lock the door & look at leisure through the boxes for useful info.

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Here are some of the most notable revelations [of the indictment].

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "... if [Donald Trump] winds up in the dock in front of a jury, it is no exaggeration to suggest that American justice will be on trial as well. Historys first federal indictment against a former president poses one of the gravest challenges to democracy the country has ever faced.... Few if any [Republicans] bothered to wait to read the indictment before backing Mr. Trump's all-caps assertion that it was merely part of the 'GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME.'... Mr. Trump ... is holding nothing back as he assails 'the "Thugs" from the Department of Injustice' and calls [Jack] Smith a 'deranged lunatic.' Republicans like Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona have called for dismantling the F.B.I. 'We have now reached a war phase,' he wrote on Twitter on Friday. 'Eye for an eye.'" Read on. MB: Baker argues that the justice system is on trial. In fact, it's Republican party "leaders" who are on trial. And the verdict is already "guilty." Moreover, Baker never mentions that a significant test of the justice system is whether or not Aileen Cannon is allowed to remain the judge presiding over the case.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Friday in the Trump stolen documents case is here.

Alan Feuer & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The indictment of former President Donald J. Trump that was unsealed on Friday provided compelling evidence that Mr. Trump's handling of classified documents was more cavalier, and his efforts to obstruct the government's attempts to retrieve them more blatant, than previously known. On nearly every one of its 49 pages, the indictment revealed yet another example of Mr. Trump's indifference toward the country's most sensitive secrets and of his persistent willfulness in having his aides and lawyers stymie government attempts to get the records back.... The indictment also showcased the bedrock elements of the former president's personality: his sense of bombast and vengeance, his belief that everything he touches belongs to him and his admiration of people for their underhanded craftiness and gamesmanship with the authorities."

** Devlin Barrett, et al., of the Washington Post: "Former president Donald Trump stashed sensitive intelligence secrets in a bathroom, his bedroom and a ballroom at Mar-a-Lago, according to a scathing 49-page indictment unsealed Friday against him and a loyal servant who is accused of lying to cover up his boss's alleged crimes. The grand jury indictment tells a story of hubris and hypocrisy, describing a wealthy former president living among neck-high stacks of boxes with classified documents scattered inside them, sometimes literally spilling out of their containers. In the prosecutors' telling, neither Trump nor any of his aides or lawyers appeared bothered by the sprawl of sensitive papers until government agents came calling. Then, the former commander in chief allegedly set out to hide some of what he had....

"'Wouldn't it be better if we just told them we don't have anything here?' Trump allegedly asked when his lawyers told him in May 2022 that they had to comply with a grand jury subpoena seeking the return of any documents marked classified. In that same conversation, he praised a lawyer for Hillary Clinton for what he claimed was the act of deleting 30,000 of her emails when she was in government. 'He did a great job,' Trump allegedly said." (An earlier version of the story was linked yesterday.)

Evan Perez, et al., of CNN: "An aide to ... Donald Trump has been indicted in special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into the mishandling of classified documents from the Trump White House, two sources familiar with the indictment tell CNN. Walt Nauta's indictment is the second in the special counsel's investigation after Trump was indicted on seven counts on Thursday.... Nauta was with Trump at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club this week.... Trump responded to Nauta's indictment on his social media Friday, writing, 'They are trying to destroy his life, like the lives of so many others, hoping that he will say bad things about "Trump." He is strong, brave, and a Great Patriot. The FBI and DOJ are CORRUPT!'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Two of Donald Trump's top lawyers abruptly resigned from his defense team on Friday, just hours after news broke that he and a close aide were indicted on charges related to their handling of classified documents. Jim Trusty and John Rowley, who helmed Trump's Washington, D.C.-based legal team for months and were seen frequently at the federal courthouse, indicated they would no longer represent Trump in matters being investigated and prosecuted by special counsel Jack Smith.... In their place, Trump indicated that Todd Blanche -- an attorney he recently retained to help fight unrelated felony charges brought by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg in April -- would lead his legal team, along with a firm to be named later." (Also linked yesterday.) A New York Times story, by Haberman & Feuer, is here.

OMG! Katherine Faulders, et al., of ABC News: "The summons sent to ... Donald Trump and his legal team late Thursday indicates that U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon will be assigned to oversee his case, at least initially, according to sources briefed on the matter.... The 42-year-old judge [-- a Trump appointee --] was appointed last year as a 'special master' to review those materials seized from Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. Legal experts accused Cannon of handing Trump a series of head-scratching victories over the course of those proceedings.... In one instance..., Cannon's order was ultimately thrown out in its entirety by an 11th Circuit Court of appeals panel, which found she overstepped in exercising her jurisdiction in the probe. In addition to Cannon, Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart's name also appeared on the summons sent to Trump on Thursday, the sources said. Reinhart ... is also familiar with the proceedings against Trump: he signed off on the initial search warrant of Mar-a-Lago last year and later ruled to unseal the search affidavit -- decisions that made him the target of antisemitic jabs on the internet." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Judge Aileen will throw out the whole case with prejudice without even batting an eye. "f this woman is assigned to the Trump case, there will not be a Trump case. The government can't appeal every one of her decisions. Can it? ~~~

     ~~~ Update: In case you think I'm exaggerating, Katy Tur of MSNBC asked Andrew Weissmann what the vulnerabilities of the government's case against Trump were. Instead of talking about some possible weakness in the evidence, Weissmann said, "The judge." ~~~

     ~~~ Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Even as prosecutors publicly unveiled a deep and detailed array of evidence against ... Donald J. Trump in the documents investigation on Friday, they suffered a potential setback with the surprise assignment of the case to Judge Aileen M. Cannon. Judge Cannon, 42, a Trump appointee in Florida, shocked legal experts across ideological lines last year by intervening in the investigation and issuing rulings favorable to Mr. Trump, only to be rebuked by a conservative appeals court.... [Now] Judge Cannon may have ample opportunity to issue rulings affecting the tempo and outcome of the case. For one, substantial evidence described in the indictment comes from Mr. Trump's own lawyers, raising the likelihood of a fight over whether it should be suppressed as a matter of attorney-client privilege.... Decisions Judge Cannon makes in establishing the pretrial and trial calendar could also be critical." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Some of the most compelling evidence in the indictment comes from Trump attorney Evan Corcoran, whose audio notes recount some of Trump's attempts to get him to deep-six evidence of Trump's crimes. That is, Trump wanted Corcoran to do the obstruction crimes for him, a long-time Trump tactic (see Cohen, Michael). As Savage notes, Cannon could toss this evidence.

NARA Disputes Trump's Imaginary Defense. Jamie Gangel, et al., of CNN: "The National Archives is pushing back on claims made by ... Donald Trump, his lawyers and his allies over his retention of classified documents, for which he now faces a federal indictment. On Friday, the Archives took the rare step of releasing a public statement rebuking claims suggesting that Trump was allowed to keep classified materials under the Presidential Records Act. '... The PRA requires that all records created by Presidents (and Vice-Presidents) be turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) at the end of their administrations,' according to the statement.... Former Trump attorney Tim Parlatore, who worked on the classified documents case before leaving the former President's legal team in recent weeks, mischaracterized the Presidential Records Act repeatedly during TV appearances this week, including on CNN Thursday night. Parlatore said that a President 'is supposed to take the next two years after they leave office to go through all these documents to figure out what's personal and what's presidential.' In its statement Friday, the National Archives flatly disputed that claim, stating, 'There is no history, practice, or provision in law for presidents to take official records with them when they leave office to sort through, such as for a two-year period as described in some reports.'"

David Gilbert of Vice: "In what is becoming a now all-too-familiar trend..., Donald Trump's far-right supporters have threatened civil war after news broke Thursday that the former president was indicted for allegedly taking classified documents from the White House without permission. 'We need to start killing these traitorous fuckstains,' wrote one Trump supporter on The Donald, a rabidly pro-Trump message board that played a key role in planning the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Another user added: 'It's not gonna stop until bodies start stacking up. We are not civilly represented anymore and they'll come for us next. Some of us, they already have.'... Right-wing lawmakers and commentators also pushed the idea that this was a politically-motivated prosecution ordered by Joe Biden.... In a statement..., [Kevin McCarthy] claimed that Biden was directly behind the indictment of Trump in a bid to remove the leading GOP candidate for the 2024 election. On right-wing media, hosts echoed the messages posted on social media, boosting the same baseless claims while using war-related language and providing no evidence to back up their allegations." ~~~

~~~ Kira Lerner of the Guardian: "Two and a half years after the January 6 attack on the Capitol, an estimated 12 million American adults, or 4.4% of the adult population, believe violence is justified to restore Donald Trump to the White House. Though the number of adults who believe this has declined since the insurrection, recent survey data from the University of Chicago reveal alarming and dangerous levels of support for political violence and conspiracy theories across the United States."

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Friday unsealed a potentially landmark ruling that compelled former vice president Mike Pence to testify earlier this year before a grand jury investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack and efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Pence had initially fought the subpoena from special counsel Jack Smith. But in March, Pence hailed what he called a historic decision by Chief U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg of Washington, agreeing that Pence could remain silent on topics that dealt specifically with his role in Congress on Jan. 6.... Boasberg's 18-page opinion, issued in March, reveals that the court allowed Pence the privilege to avoid testifying only in response to very specific questions.... 'The Court holds that, while the Clause does apply to the Vice President, it does not cover the vast majority of what the Special Counsel seeks to ask him about. The Court will thus largely deny the former Vice President's motion,' Boasberg wrote in his ruling." Politico's report, by Kyle Cheney, is here. MB: IOW, pence's claim that the ruling was a big win for him was, well, not true.

MEANWHILE ...

Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Biden named a new Border Patrol chief on Friday as U.S. immigration policies have come under renewed scrutiny following the end of Title 42, a pandemic-era restriction that allowed the authorities to expel most migrants for more than three years. Jason Owens, who has served in the Border Patrol for more than 20 years, was most recently the leader of the Del Rio division in Texas, which handles one of the busiest areas for illegal crossings. He succeeds Raul Ortiz, who is set to retire at the end of the month after serving 32 years in the Border Patrol. Mr. Owens takes over at a time when illegal crossings have decreased."

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "Just six days after [Kevin McCarthy's debt ceiling] triumph, a small band of right-wing zealots who opposed the debt deal used parliamentary tactics to bring proceedings on the House floor to a halt, in the first protest of its kind in more than two decades. They shut down the House for a couple of hours, then for the entire day, then for the next day. After 6 p.m. on Wednesday, House GOP leaders surrendered to the saboteurs with a whip notice: 'Members are advised that votes are no longer expected in the House this week.... Thank you all for your patience.' The mutineers were in command of the ship. They blamed McCarthy for betraying them. McCarthy blamed Majority Leader Steve Scalise. Scalise blamed McCarthy. Negotiations went nowhere. And the People's House ceased to function." Milbank recounts the ridiculous if futile GOP attempts to pass what one Democratic wag called "The Appliance Bill of Rights," and segued into evidence that "the Venn diagram of Republican political interests and Russian propaganda interests has shown an uncomfortable amount of overlap."

Ed Mazza of the Huffington Post: "People Sure Think Marjorie Taylor Greene Just Admitted To A Crime On Live TV.... Greene said she read a document inside a SCIF ― a sensitive compartmented information facility ― related to bribery allegations Republicans have made against President Joe Biden but have yet to provide evidence for. Then, she described that document while speaking to Laura Ingraham on Fox News[.]... Greene said the document was 'unclassified,' but a SCIF is typically used only for very sensitive information. Lawmakers generally must check all electronic devices before entering, and cannot take notes while inside. And usually, information revealed in the SCIF can't be repeated outside of it. But Greene ... said she copied as much as she could once she left the SCIF.... 'I wrote down everything that I had just read so that I could come out and tell the American people what I read,' she said." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. See also his commentary below. Update: Scroll on down to see also Patrick's commentary re: the "Law Enforcement Sensitive" doc Miss Margie shared with Laura & the Foxbots. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Originally (though after extended negotiations) FBI Director Chris Wray allowed the committee chairman Jim Comer (R) & ranking member Jamie Raskin (D) to read the document but not the committee members. For Wray's refusing access to members, Comer drew up a resolution to hold Wray in contempt of Congress. With that, Wray relented (or "caved," as Comer put it), and Comer withdrew his contempt resolution. It took about 24 hours for MTG to prove that Wray was right to withhold the document from a careless, loose-lipped committee member. (Also linked yesterday.)

Grace Ashford & Michael Gold of the New York Times: "Representative George Santos on Friday appealed a federal magistrate judge's decision ordering the release of the names of the people who helped bail him out of federal custody, suggesting that the individuals were family members. The identities of Mr. Santos's guarantors have been the subject of intense interest to both the news media and the House Ethics Committee, which last month requested that Mr. Santos disclose their names so it might assess whether the $500,000 bail guarantee violated House ethics rules regarding gifts. In papers filed with the Eastern District of New York on Friday, Mr. Santos's lawyer, Joseph Murray, argued that Mr. Santos had not violated ethics rules, citing an exception for family members and implying that the guarantors fell into that category."

Beyond the Beltway

Wyoming. Adam Goldman & Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors are investigating possible campaign finance violations in connection with an undercover operation based in Wyoming that aimed to infiltrate progressive groups, political campaigns and the offices of elected representatives before the 2020 election, according to two people familiar with the matter and documents related to the case. As part of the operation, revealed in 2021 by The New York Times, participants used large campaign donations and cover stories to gain access to their targets and gather dirt to sabotage the reputations of people and organizations considered threats to the agenda of ... Donald J. Trump."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Saturday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Saturday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefing for Saturday is here: "Ukraine made marginal gains on the front lines, advancing nearly a mile near Bakhmut and forcing several dozen Russian troops in the eastern village of Arapivka to flee their positions, according to Ukrainian officials, as Kyiv's counteroffensive continues. Ukrainian forces also inched forward near a southeastern town, according to military analysts.... [Vladimir] Putin stressed that Ukrainian troops still had 'offensive potential,' even as he argued that 'all counteroffensive attempts made so far have failed,' in comments to reporters Friday.... Rescue efforts continued in the Kherson region, which was hit by flooding after the collapse of the Russian-controlled Kakhovka dam."

Aamer Madhani of the AP: "Iran is providing Russia with materials to build a drone manufacturing plant east of Moscow as the Kremlin looks to lock in a steady supply of weaponry for its ongoing invasion of Ukraine, according to a U.S. intelligence finding released by the White House on Friday. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that U.S. intelligence officials believe a plant in Russia's Alabuga special economic zone could be operational early next year. The White House also released satellite imagery taken in April of the industrial location, several hundred miles east of Moscow, where it believes the plant 'will probably be built.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

U.K. Buh-bye. Stephen Castle & Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Britain's former prime minister, Boris Johnson, abruptly resigned his parliamentary seat on Friday, another dramatic twist in the career of one of the country's most flamboyant and divisive politicians. Mr. Johnson has been under investigation from a committee of the House of Commons that was looking into whether he had lied to Parliament over lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street during the Covid-19 pandemic. On Friday, having received a confidential copy of their findings, he accused the committee of attempting to drive him out, adding: 'They have still not produced a shred of evidence that I knowingly or recklessly misled the Commons.' The committee had the power to recommend a sanction that could have led to Mr. Johnson being forced into an election to hold onto his constituency just outside London -- a contest he might well have lost." The Guardian's report is here.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Theodore J. Kaczynski, the so-called Unabomber, who attacked academics, businessmen and random civilians with homemade bombs from 1978 to 1995, killing three people and injuring 23 with the stated goal of fomenting the collapse of the modern social order -- a violent spree that ended after what was often described as the longest and most costly manhunt in American history -- died on Saturday in a federal prison medical center in Butner, N.C. He was 81." ~~~

     ~~~ New York Times Update: "Theodore J. Kaczynski, the 'Unabomber,' who killed three people and injured 23 in a bombing spree stretching from 1978 to 1995, died by suicide at a federal prison medical center in North Carolina early Saturday, according to three people familiar with the situation.... The self-inflicted death of another high-profile inmate, four years after the accused sex offender Jeffrey Epstein hanged himself at a Manhattan federal detention center, is certain to raise fresh questions about the quality of security, oversight and health care in the troubled, chronically understaffed federal prison system."

New York Times: "After 40 days in the Colombian rainforest, all four children who had been missing since the plane they were traveling in crashed on May 1 have been found alive, according to Colombia's president [Gustavo Petro].... When rescuers reached the site of the plane's wreckage last month, the bodies of the three adults on board were found, but there was no sign of the four children known to have been on the plane. In a case that captivated the nation, local Indigenous communities from the remote region, along with the Colombian military, began scouring the jungle for the children, aged 13, 9, 4 and 1.... It was unclear as of Saturday morning who found the children or how they managed to survive for so long in a thick jungle that is prone to heavy rains and contains jaguars and poisonous snakes."